Obama and Iran's Rowhani vie for UN spotlight

UNITED NATIONS: US President Barack Obama and his new Iranian counterpart Hassan Rowhani battle for the spotlight when world leaders start speeches at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

While the war in Syria is expected to dominate discussion, all eyes will be on the leaders of the arch rivals to see whether a handshake or some other gesture gives a firm sign of a thaw.

The two will not be in the assembly hall at the same time.

Obama will be the second speaker to take the podium before more than 130 kings, heads of state and government leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York for a week of addresses and negotiations.

Rowhani, who was elected in June and has indicated he wants better ties with the West despite a nuclear showdown, will follow several hours later.

But they could cross paths at a lunch UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is holding for leaders. The White House has not ruled out a meeting and Iran's Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif has already agreed to meet US counterpart John Kerry on Thursday.

High level contacts between top Iranian and US officials have been rare since the United States broke off relations with Iran in 1980 in the tumultuous events after its Islamic revolution.

Zarif and Kerry will be the first US and Iranian ministers to meet as part of talks between the major powers - United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China - and Iran over its contest nuclear program.

Western powers said on Monday that Iran had to follow up on Rowhani's comments calling for better ties if it wants to be taken seriously.

The statements have "to be matched by concrete steps and actions" on Iran's nuclear drive and help for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said after talks with Zarif.

"To meet means exchanges, but does not mean a change of position," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters.

Syria dominates UN speeches

Obama, like most leaders, was to devote a lot of his speech to the 30-month-old Syrian war that has left well over 100,000 dead, according to the UN.

The US president was to renew warnings about Syria's chemical weapons while also giving his backing to UN efforts to broker a political end to the war, White House officials said.

His call for action against the use of banned chemical arms comes as the UN Security Council struggles to agree on a resolution to back a Russia-US plan to destroy Assad's arsenal.

The United States, Britain and France want a resolution that uses Chapter VII of the UN Charter to give legal force to the plan.

Having first called for Chapter VII, Moscow now opposes the measure. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accuses the West of using "blackmail" to get a resolution that approves military force.

Western diplomats deny there is a call for force or sanctions in the draft resolution currently under discussion.

The deadlock could be lifted when Kerry and Lavrov meet Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN summit. But if they cannot agree on enforcement measures then the disarmament mission could be seriously delayed, diplomats warned.

France's Fabius said he still believed a resolution can be agreed this week, though he reaffirmed calls for Chapter VII action.

Ban will call a meeting on Wednesday of the foreign ministers of the Security Council permanent members - Kerry, Lavrov, Hague, Fabius and China's Wang Yi - to press for united action on the Syria crisis.

He will also meet with Kerry and Lavrov separately in a bid to agree a date for a Syria peace conference in Geneva. The meeting could be held Friday, according to UN officials.